Improvement of postgraduate international student transition

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Introduction

According to Gu. (2016) more than one million post-graduate students from other nations in the

globe enroll in the United States universities for different programs to secure a lucrative job in

the future as the country is recognized for the highest levels of education ranking in the world.

Ammigan and Jones (2018) state that the experience of attaining a doctorate in the United States

feels exciting to international students who strive to fulfill their career and personal goals. The

institutions also benefit greatly from the new recruitments, in terms of intellectual and financial

capital. International students as well as enrich the American institutions with diverse cultural

and heritage perspective thus contributing to multicultural development. Although these

enrollments seem appealing and beneficial to both students and the institutions, Ammigan and

Jones (2018) add that their different backgrounds make it difficult to adapt to the new

environments. The students look forward to having an easy and conducive academic

environment in the UK only to realize that they were wrong as they meet different personnel in

the institutions in terms of their colleagues, teachers and other support staff and are faced with

language barriers and find it difficult to adjusts to these new learning environments. These

individuals feel inferior as they compare themselves with other native students and feel

discriminated against as they undergo the entire adaptation process. Apart from the linguistic

barrier, Arthur (2018) show that international students face academic challenges as teaching

methods and learning styles seem different from what they were used to in their home countries.

Additionally, Schartner and Young (2016) show that cultural shock hits the students as they feel

lost due to the different cultural background and unique lifestyles which create homesickness and

loneliness feelings among them. However, the United States government and university
administration should come up with programs that will create ample environments for these

students in terms of academic, linguistic, and culture as discussed.

Cultural transition

To improve cultural transition among post-graduate international students, Gill (2019) shows that

universities in the United States should create programs to facilitate cross-culture adjustment.

The programs consider the growing international students’ populations and focus on the growing

cross cultures. Gill (2019) adds that the programs are categorized as either individual-based that

rely on one-to-one interactions or group-based programs that rely on interactions between native

and international students through games, music, and other co-curriculum. According to Arthur

(2018), the individual base programs involve interaction between students from different races

where they share academic, social, and economic ideas. The programs give the students

recognition of their efforts academically and socially allowing them to accept the new

environment. Arthur (2018) add that the programs also allow international students to feel

motivated and this lowers the chances of creating a discriminative environment in the

universities. On the other hand, Gbadamosi (2015) indicates that group-based programs involve

the social participation of all students from different backgrounds to the university co-curriculum

activities such as sports. Through this program, international students can develop their

capabilities and learn about other native student’s abilities. This generates positive peer pressure

among them, provides a similar environment as their home countries, and creates a sense of

belonging towards them by allowing them to accept the new environments and eliminates the

cross-cultures.

Academic transition
Besides the one-to-one and group-based programs, Rienties et al (2013) show that the university

administration should organize orientation programs to facilitate international students’ academic

transitions, campus, and community acquaintance. The orientation programs provide details and

guidance to these students on academic policies and requirements that make it easy for them to

adhere to all academic regulations to avoid any form of inconveniences or even discontinuation.

Additionally, Leask and Carroll (2011) indicate the programs help the students on course

registration procedures and other specialties that are provided by the university and academic

departments eliminating unnecessary costs that they could incur during the procedures. They also

create awareness among the international students on various university resources and how to

utilize them such as financial aids(bursaries), international student organizations, healthcare

services, and other on-campus events. Leask and Carroll (2011) add that the administration too

should provide online orientation programs to international students even before the departure

from their home countries by providing useful information that eases their adjustment studying

in the United States. However, Arthur (2018) shows that students via online platforms created

can receive academic expectations, healthcare insurance, and cultural adjustment measures. This

allows them to ease the tension in facing new academic environments as they are capable of

experiencing some of the facilitates even before the actual enrollment to the university.

Furthermore, Gbadamosi (2015) states that the UK government in collaboration with the

university administration can provide partial or even full scholarship programs to needy post-

graduate international students that facilitate their academic transitions by eliminating the

financial barrier as post-graduate programs are quit expensive.

Linguistic transitions
Gbadamosi (2015) indicate that non-English speaking international students in the UK report

experiences similar to those of domestic minority students. As a result, Gbadamosi (2015) adds

that the United States universities can consider improving linguistic transitions among these

students by creating language-related orientation programs and workshops that help them

improve their communication skills. Through the workshops, Arthur (2018) show that

international students are allowed to express themselves in their native languages and their issues

addressed by the administration appropriately. Gbadamosi (2015) suggests that the university as

well should provide communication skills programs in addition to their doctorate courses to

ensure that the students learn English as their main communication language.

Conclusively, international students in the UK face linguistic, academic, and cultural barriers in

the universities. The United States government and the university administration are creating

programs and workshops to improve these transitions. The program's facilities smooth

transitions by helping students develop skills through the activities that these programs expose

them in. Secondly, providing students with an opportunity to develop rich relationships with

other cross-cultural students and staff and equip them with tools for coping in multiple contexts

during their academic experience. On the other hand, these experiences, are important to these

students as they help them interact with people from different backgrounds in terms of race and

culture by increasing their understanding of cultural competence.

 References

Ammigan, R., & Jones, E. (2018). Improving the student experience: Learning from a

comparative study of international student satisfaction. Journal of Studies in

International Education, 22(4), 283-301.

Arthur, N. (2018). Intersectionality and International Student Identities in Transition.

In Counselling in Cultural Contexts (pp. 271-292). Springer, Cham.

Gbadamosi, G. (2015) ‘Should we bother improving students’ attendance at

seminars?’ Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 52 (2), pp. 196-206

Gill, A. (2019). Student Transition into Higher Education: Exploring BTEC Sport and Exercise

Students Forthcoming Transition to Higher Education Taught within a Further Education

setting. Innovative Practice in Higher Education, 3(3), 90-112.

Gu, Q. (2016). Chinese students in the UK: Learning and growth in transition. In Spotlight on

China (pp. 107-128). Brill Sense.

Leask, B. and Carroll, J. (2011) ‘Moving beyond ‘wishing and hoping’: internationalization and

student experiences of inclusion and engagement’, Higher Education Research &

Development, 30 (5), pp. 647-659

Rienties, B., Héliot, Y. and Jindal-Snape, D. (2013) ‘Understanding social learning relations of

international students in a large classroom using social network analysis’, Higher

Education, 66 (4), pp. 489-504

Schartner, A., & Young, T. J. (2016). Towards an integrated conceptual model of international

student adjustment and adaptation. European Journal of Higher Education, 6(4), 372-

386.